Critique in Systems and Technology

This report is based on a merger between two companies, Outback Safari Tours and Mainland Express. The report includes a critique of management decisions, differences between IT and IS issues, and strategies to attract new customers. The merger would enable both the organizations to enjoy the technological advancements. The report places a critique of management processes and planning for IT and IS in an organization.

Running head: CRITIQUE IN SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY
Critique in Systems and Technology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
Business Mergers are often found to be providing the services to the organizations involved
within the business to find out better prospects of the organizations involved and present the
best of both the industries. Every business organization has several advantageous systems in
the organization system as well as disadvantageous systems. Therefore, the merger would
bring about the consideration of both these to identify the better one amongst them. These
would enable the merged organization to have all the better implementation of strategies.
Therefore, the following business report is also based on such a merger that involves two
coach companies, Outback Safari Tours and Mainland Express. Where the former is a full-
service large organization the latter is a lows cost company with small scale business. The
management has made several decisions for the merger of the Outback Safari Tours and
Mainland Express, and those includes retaining all existing all staff, coaches, tours and
terminuses. The merger was done at such a pre-scheduled order so that the current scheduling
for both the organization does not conflict with each other. The distinguish between
Information Systems or IS and Information Technology or IT issues will establish how IT
and IS will affect customer choice, brand loyalty and continued patronage. It will also have
suggestions of attracting new customers before the contesting organization and strategies of
any kind of new opportunities that might come up with such a set up. The report places a
critique of management processes and planning for IT and IS in an organisation.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Outline of the case study........................................................................................................3
Assumptions made at the beginning of the report..................................................................4
Critique of the management decisions...................................................................................5
Differences between Information Technology and Information Systems issues...................6
Effect of IT and IS issues to customer choice, continued patronage and brand loyalty........7
Strategies to attract new customers from competitors...........................................................7
New business opportunities given the new strategies implied...............................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Any corporate acquisition or any kind of corporate mergers affects the growth
prospects of the company about all the companies that is involved in the merger. Mergers
have the ability to provide the organizations involved to have a much more profound impact
on the growth prospects of the organizations involved. Although, it is positively impactful on
the transforming the companies overnight, it also has several risks associated with it as well
(Wang, 2018). The following report is based on such a merger between two companies that
would be responsible for the mergers happening between them. The organizations are
Outback Safari Tours and Mainland Express where the former is a full serviced coach
company and the latter is the low-cost coach company. The merger would thus be presented
through a business report about the above-mentioned case uttering all the expectations made
at the commencement of the entire report.
Outline of the case study
The decision behind the merger is being made by the management bodies of both the
organization with the help of the understanding developed from the current position of the
organizations. The first organization, which is the Outback Safari Tours, is a full-service
coach company that has over 25 offices located all over Australia. The company presents the
customers with varied amount of services by providing with multi day tours, excellent service
and a fleet of new coaches that are all less than 4 years of age and has the capability of
carrying over 50 passengers. The company has 75% of its sales coming from the travel agents
as well as tour operators.
Where on the other hand, the organization of the Mainland Express is a low-cost
coach company that has less amount of the office locations, with 10 offices located in

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Australia. The company has the advantages of serving the customers with low cost fares and
on time services. The organizations mostly focus on the routes from city to city, providing the
minimum number of stops but it does not have any overnight accommodation system
(Oriesek & Schwarz, 2016). The company uses technologically advanced services and
provides the customers with online booking facilities.
Assumptions made at the beginning of the report
There are several assumptions made before the merger is contemplated right at the
beginning of the entire report. This helped in making the decisions for the organizations, the
management and the directorial bodies of the organizations to consider all the aspects of both
the organizations so that the merger can be carried out in the smoothest way possible
considering all of the assumptions according to the organizations and their current states. The
assumptions that can be made in this regard should be listed and discussed as follows:
 The Outback Safari Tours and Mainland Express would enjoy a much-
preferred position within the market, given the large business opportunity of
the former organizations and the small-scale structure of the latter. The
reputation of Outback Safari Tours has been established long enough in the
market and this would be much more feasible for Mainland Express if the
organization had inherited the reputation of the Outback Safari Tours.
 The Outback Safari Tours is a bit outdated as a system since it is not known
for the provision of an online service, where on the other hand, the
organization of Mainland Express has an improved and new-age technological
services. The merger would help in both the organization enjoy the
technological advancements.

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 The organizations have differences in scheduling systems, therefore, there
would not be any conflicts while scheduling the services for the customers.
Critique of the management decisions
The critique of the management decisions is to be made by delivering the ideas that
have been developed for the merger involving both the organizations (Liu, Öberg, Tarba &
Xing, 2018). The idea that they have developed have been depending on the ideations of the
situation of both the organizations. Following would be a critical analysis of all the decisions
that the government has made so far about the merger of the two companies:
 The company has decided to retain all the staffs in both the organizations
including the retainment of the coaches, tours and destinations. This is a good
decision as the organizations have separate business systems when it comes to
the services provided to the customers. Therefore, the customers would enjoy
the facilities of both the services with no clashes in timing. The employees
would not also be negatively affected by the merger as the process would
mean that there would be no separate existences of the organizations that the
employees used to work for.
 The management has decided that the merger company of the Mainland–Safari
Tours will commence its service as a low-cost carrier based on premium
subscriptions where the services would be available for the customers at low-
cost fare, but passengers can pay for everything else starting from seating,
baggage, drinks, meals, Wi-Fi on the road and even luggage to first-to-board
privilege. It will move to low-cost coach terminals where available. This has
been a good decision as the company would have a better view at the services

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that would include the best phases for both the organization and their services
for the customers to enjoy.
Differences between Information Technology and Information Systems issues
The merger of Outback Safari Tours and Mainland Express to the merged
organization of Mainland–Safari Tours would also mean that the Information Technology
and Information Systems would also be merged together. The issues regarding both these
cases can be contemplated below as the following discussion:
Information Technology Issues: The organization of Outback Safari Tours had been
an organization that had been providing services to the customers since a long time. This is
why the organization has been falling behind given the new era in the business world as the
new competitions in the market has been implementing the use of IT systems (Źróbek,
Kucharska-Stasiak, Naimaviciene & Tupenaite, 2016). On the other hand, the organization of
Mainland Express has been providing the customers with online booking services. Therefore,
the issues that the organization of Outback Safari Tour had with the outdated business system
was solved due to the merger.
Information System Issues: The system of corporate governance within the
organization has been in different stages. Since, Mainland Express is a small scaled
organization, there had been no implementation of a proper policies, rules, agreements and
management processes as well as the decision systems. This is not maintained in the Outback
Safari Tours as the company is an organization having previous establishments and has been
providing services to the customers over a longer period of time. Thus, the Outback Safari
Tours and its market reputation with the utilization of its establishment to the newly merged
organization as well.

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Effect of IT and IS issues to customer choice, continued patronage and brand
loyalty
Customer choice: Mergers would have the ability of either the increase and decrease
of the customers. The IS and IT issues would affect the choices of the consumers as well. The
customers of the Outback Safari Tours might be looking forward to online booking or the
customers of the Mainland Express would be looking towards the manual booking system
(Bebenroth, 2015). The merger would enable both the kinds of customers to enjoy their
requirements from the merged company.
Continued Patronage: Since, it is assumed that the merger of the companies would
ensure better business and customer acquisition for the merged organization, it is quite
obvious that the company would gain many customers and would help in gaining more
customer reputation and this is why the sponsors of the organization would find it essential to
continue their patronage in the merged organization.
Brand Loyalty: Since, the organization after merger is assumed to gain both the
positive points of the previous organizations and would absorb all the negativity of the
organizations, it would be easier to understand that the customers would still be loyal to the
brand even after the merger and would help in the retention of customers.
Strategies to attract new customers from competitors
The risk after a merger is the retention of the customers and if the merger is
mishandled, it is easier to have an arrangement that would completely undermine the ultimate
value of the deal.

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For this the merged organization would require the mapping of the customer base of
the organization utilising the internal constituencies of the organization. It is also essential to
have a customer centric view and for this the customers should be contacted to make sure that
their insights are implemented in the organization (Weber & Tarba, 2016). The entire staff
should be involved in this case and that would require the involvement of every staff in the
organization. The internal communications should also be given proper value for this to make
sure all the staff are involved and customers are retained.
New business opportunities given the new strategies implied
The business organization would provide the following opportunities to the business
after the strategies are implied:
 The combined company Mainland–Safari Tours will hold all the staff already
working for the organization involving no employee termination.
 The current scheduling would not conflict.
 Mainland–Safari Tours will begin service as a low-cost carrier based on
premium subscriptions and slowly transform to low-cost coach terminals for
better customer service.
 Outback Safari’s aging system is to be merged into the Mainland Express
advanced system making both kinds of customers find out their chosen
systems for booking.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be said that according to the study of the business merger and the
business report made along with the understanding of the analysis, it can be said the
management had made a correct decision to join the Outback Safari Tours and the Mainland

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Express and this has solved all the issues regarding the outdated systems of the larger
organization by merging it to the smaller organization having advanced systems. The
Mainland-Safari tours have been merged to begin their services as the low-cost carriers where
the passengers would have low-cost faire but they can enjoy all the other privileges in the
journey from seating, baggage, drinks, meals, Wi-Fi on the road. The business report has
been presented with the help of the analysis made on the outlines of the case study, the
assumptions made at the commencement of the report, the critique of the management
decisions, finding out the differences between the IS and IT issues and with the help of the
descriptions of the corporate governance of the combined management for both the
companies when it has to decide on the policies, rules, agreements and the management
processes.

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References
Bebenroth, R. (2015). International Business Mergers and Acquisitions in Japan. Springer.
Liu, Y., Öberg, C., Tarba, S. Y., & Xing, Y. (2018). Brand management in mergers and
acquisitions: emerging market multinationals venturing into advanced
economies. International Marketing Review, 35(5), 710-732.
Oriesek, D. F., & Schwarz, J. O. (2016). Business wargaming: securing corporate value.
Routledge.
Wang, Y. (2018, July). An Analysis of Synergies under Strategic Mergers and Acquisitions.
In 2018 3rd International Conference on Education, Sports, Arts and Management
Engineering (ICESAME 2018). Atlantis Press.
Weber, Y., & Tarba, S. Y. (2016). Mergers and acquisitions, entrepreneurship and
innovation. Emerald Group Publishing.
Źróbek, S., Kucharska-Stasiak, E., Naimaviciene, J., & Tupenaite, L. (2016). Selected aspects
of real estate appraisers’ professional training on the background of economic
theory. Journal of International Studies, 9(2), 251-258.